Stranica 34 [34]
14 LIGHT AND WATER
landscape appears in the reflexion, whereas, on the
other hand, the more obliquely we are looking on to
the surface the more
nearly will the actual
scene and its reflexion
resemble one another;
in fact, if the eye were
at the very level of the
water, the one would
be the exact double of
the other. It is sim¬
ply a question of the
angle that the direc¬
tion of vision makes
with the water ; if this
is small the difference
is small, and wzce versa.
So it happens that, in
looking down on to a lake from above, we often get
nothing but sky reflexion; distant mountains, on the
other hand, seen across a wide expanse of water, are
reproduced in their full height (Plate 11). As a picture
cannot be taken from the actual level of the water,
there is always some difference between the direct
view and the view by reflexion, though in the case of
distant objects it may be so slight as to be imper¬
ceptible. But objects in the foreground show this
difference in a marked degree, those nearest to the
spectator rising up in the reflexion relatively to those
behind them. Thus in the photograph of the St.
Moritz lake opposite the mountains seem to be ex¬
actly repeated in the water, but the roof of the little